Wyden Says Legislation Could Follow Auto Industry Queries
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he sent a second round of letters to automakers and a round of letters to tier 1 suppliers about their ties to Xinjiang (see 2303280069) because he was disappointed by the tenor of the responses to his first round of letters in December.
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When asked if the investigation is to inform a legislative effort, Wyden replied, "What we know about this session is that it's hard to pass legislation." He said they may learn the issue of rooting out Uyghur forced labor in auto supply chains can be done by agencies without further legislative authority, or they may learn there needs to be a combination of agency action and legislation.
"We'll see what has to be done administratively, what has to be done legislatively. But I'm not taking anything off the table," he said in an interview at the Capitol March 29. "Forced labor is one of the most reprehensible practices in the world."
Wyden said his understanding is that automakers have lists of suppliers, but they want to know more about how those lists are compiled. The letters to tier 1 suppliers ask if their own lists go deeper than direct suppliers, and if they have Chinese-language names of their suppliers' suppliers.
"Depending on what [lists] look like ... that certainly raises some questions," he said. "They've got all kinds of lists, different kinds of lists for different kinds of names. There are a lot of these, apparently."